The new Royal Danish Library

On January 1, 2017, the State and University Library in Aarhus and The Royal Library in Copenhagen merged. The Danish National Art Library and the Administrative Library are also part of the merger.

The institutions will be collectively known as the Royal Danish Library.

The main tasks are:

University library for Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University

Preservation of Danish cultural heritage

Dissemination of culture and research

Main centre for the country’s public libraries

'To a great extent, the libraries perform the same tasks when they support research and education at universities. As regards the role of national library, there are a wide range of areas where we gain great benefits from pooling and strengthening the work,' says Chief Executive Svend Larsen.

In the course of 2017, the new library will create a joint organisation. There will be a roll-out in several stages, where the goal is to minimise interference with the library’s users as much as possible. A number of services will preliminary run on the platforms and websites that users are familiar with today. The library will also retain the physical locations in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

The decision to join The Royal Library and the State and University Library was taken by then-Minister for Culture Bertel Haarder (Liberal Party) in September 2016. The current Minister for Culture, Mette Bock (Liberal Alliance Party), has subsequently decided that the merged library is to be called ‘Royal Danish Library’.